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MONTREAL — Actions speak louder than words. On election night, Sept. 4, Pauline Marois actually uttered a few words in English and extended her hand to reassure an uneasy anglophone community about its future in Quebec. This was surprising enough, but she then took the unprecedented step of naming a minister responsible for relations with the anglophone community, Jean-François Lisée.

Lisée then proactively initiated a meeting with the heads of Montreal’s English school boards, something that former premier Jean Charest had previously refused to do. Lisée got appreciative marks from some for making this effort, which school-board officials cautiously greeted as a positive first step.

Many anglophones, however, saw this as nothing more than lip service, and their skepticism was reinforced by some of Lisée’s subsequent musings on the latest census figures, and his swipe at Justin Trudeau for Trudeau’s comments opposing any strengthening of Bill 101.

Lisée can be charming, and he is very confident. But self-assurance can quickly backfire on those who walk tightropes. Despite the initial positive feedback he received, the next steps are what matter. Lisée should realize that unless he puts his money where his mouth is, his charm will be exposed as just part of a charade.

I have a simple and straightforward suggestion for him, if he wants to show that he is genuine. If he’s willing to take us up on it, it would be a watershed and herald a dramatic new era in linguistic relations in Quebec. Ironically, it is only the PQ that can pull it off. And yes, it involves a modification of Bill 101.

As it currently reads, Bill 101 only allows children into English schools in Quebec if a parent or sibling was educated in English in Canada. Therefore, people who move to Quebec from the United States or Great Britain or Australia must send their kids to French schools. If the criteria for admission were to be modified to allow anyone with an English mother tongue to attend English schools, it would provide a major boost to the community and offer extraordinary hope for the future.

Before Bill 101 was introduced, there were 250,000 children in English schools in Quebec. Today, the number has fallen below 100,000. A new rule to facilitate access to English schools for all students of English mother tongue, not just those who come to Quebec from the rest of Canada, would allow about 8,000 new students per year into the English school system, a boost of roughly eight per cent. At the same time, it would only make a one-per-cent difference in enrolment in French schools in Quebec — hardly a blip at all. Besides, English-mother-tongue students from immigrant families won’t be turned into mother-tongue francophones even if they attend French schools.

If Lisée could marshal support for something like this, it would show that he is committed to more than just silky verbiage. (If the Liberals ventured to promote such an initiative, all hell would break loose. The PQ would accuse them of annihilating Bill 101, despite the fact that the move would have absolutely zero impact on the protection of the French language. In 1990, the Liberals were encouraged to form a committee on the question of access to English schools, and just such a committee was struck, chaired by Gretta Chambers. The proposal to open up English schools to immigrants of English mother tongue was the committee’s key recommendation. But it fell by the wayside.)

Lisée has the intellectual skill set to persuade the francophone community that this very limited measure would not have a negative impact on French language and culture in Quebec. Much like Claude Ryan was able to sell a softening of Bill 101’s commercial-sign provisions in 1993, this is something that is politically feasible for Lisée. Most francophones, I think, would respond favourably, as they are generally much more tolerant than the political discourse tends to suggest.

So there’s the challenge for Lisée. He stands to gain instant credibility with anglos if he chooses to try to do this. And if he does, I think it will really make an impact in terms of unifying Quebec society, and in generating more widespread support for real measures to protect and promote French language and culture. Otherwise, his supposed balancing act will inevitably be exposed as nothing but smoke and mirrors, and he will fall off his tightrope.

Robert Libman is a Montreal urban-planning consultant and former leader of the now-dormant provincial Equality Party.

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